If I remember rightly, dubious sites like that are how you ended up in this boat. There's even a 'Flash' installer & something offering to 'clean' your Mac.

It shows how awkward it can be to offer websites & links when one uses a decent ad blocker which completely hides the existence of objectionable 'everyday' cruft like that & makes a site reasonable to use

If I remember rightly, dubious sites like that are how you ended up in this boat. There's even a 'Flash' installer & something offering to 'clean' your Mac.

It shows how awkward it can be to offer websites & links when one uses a decent ad blocker which completely hides the existence of objectionable 'everyday' cruft like that & makes a site reasonable to use

Nothing can go wrong here by simply sticking to the directions I already gave. It installs nothing. Only downloads the file, plain and simple, nothing else. I've done this many times.

EDIT: sorry, I was rushing and didn't pay any attention to all the crap on the right side. Not seeing any of that garbage here. Hard to understand how I missed all that. First time I ever saw it. That's really bad.

I first would like to say Thank you to ALL the iIndividuals who participated in my issue. It was very interesting reading each of your comments and opinions. I really was not expecting to update Flash Player and then receive Mac Cleaner too. I guess you can mark that up to my Stupidity. I will be returning to being very picky in what I load on my iMac.

WZZZ,

Thank you very much for your patience and instruction. Being a Stroke Survivor, I want to know the results when I follow any directions. I am sorry for being so problematic, but you made this Stroke Survivor very comfortable in the install process. MWB detected Mac Cleaner and removed it. I can now start up the iMac and not see that Mac Cleaner detected this and would I want MC to remove it.

Let me say that I'm sorry there's so much crap on the internet that will take advantage of us. This is why I use adblock on almost every site (not on Mike's site or here) and am very careful about downloads. I stick to the Mac App Store mostly. An example of something I can't get there is Emby. That's my DVR for a cablecard HD homerun device that most people won't need. Every time I update that app it worries me but I've got ClamXAV running and fingers crossed.

It sucks that we have to deal with all these threats once we connect to the world but that's just the shitty side of human nature. That's why it's so nice to find the better side of human nature here!

B 88, you're welcome and glad that it appears to all have worked out in the end.

I had no idea that File Dropper was showing downloads for any of that garbage. Next time I put something there, I'll know to give a warning. And you should start using some kind of adblocker. Not only to remove ads, but it's well known that ads can be employed as a delivery system for malware--not meaning the kind of junk File Dropper pushes--that's kind of obvious, and you can be alert to that kind of thing, if you know better--but much more insidious malware.

Can't get into the adblocker thing now. Will give some information on that tomorrow.

Wzzz,I would appreciate anything you could provide. You are opening a whole new world to me. If you can recommend something to take care of adware, I'll look forward to it. What will rooks think f next?

I would recommend Adblock Plus, which should be available for whatever browser you use, Firefox, Chrome, Safari. One caveat, after it's installed be sure to go into Options>Filter Preferences>Filter Subscription and uncheck "Allow some non-intrusive advertising." Note: getting to this setting may look different if you are using a different browser or a different version of the browser than my screenshot below, which is from my Firefox 52ESR. If you are running Firefox 57, it will look different. Also, it may or may not come with Easy List as the default subscription. The filter subscription includes filters for hundreds of different kinds of ads. Without Easy List, Adblock Plus is a just a shell, which will do absolutely nothing. If it doesn't come with Easy List, post back so I can tell you how to get that.

Two ways of dealing with adware, well really three. 1. When downloading anything, always check the fine print in the agreement in advance. Often, adware will ask you to agree to something vaguely worded and "extra-curricular," but reading between the lines, it will suggest something like adware. Always check the reviews for a program. That said, reviews can't always be trusted. E.g., MacKeeper reviews are overwhelmingly positive and phony. 2. Now that you have Malwarebytes, use that periodically to manually scan your files. However, as already said, Malwarebytes v.1.xxx (the version you have) will stop being supported at some point, not sure when--no definite date from the developer--and not be able to find everything. Again, as already said, you could get the new v.3.XXX paid version with a trial period of 30 days, let that expire, don't pay, and then continue to use it for manual scanning--that version, if kept updated, should continue to be reliable. 3. Or get Sophos Home, which, besides malware, also catalogs adware. If you open an installer that contains adware, and if it's in the Sophos catalog (not a sure bet--if I had to place a bet, I'd probably put the money on Malwarebytes. But that's just a guess.) it should immediately stop the installer.https://home.sophos.com/mac

Also, one major vulnerability is Flash, even if you keep it up to date. It is constantly being exploited with malware, even the real one. Most browsers now support HTML5 for playing video, so Flash is not needed by and large. Plus, Adobe has decided to kill off Flash in the relatively near future.

To uninstall Flash, open the Macintosh HD folder on your Desktop or wherever you keep it. You may see three Libraries, your Home Folder Library, another one above that, and a third one under System. You want the second one. Open that Library and go to Internet PlugIns. Inside that, move the following2 items to the Trash: flashplayer.xpt, Flash Player.plugin (you will be asked for your password to do this.) Next, in System Preferences>Flash Player>Updates make surethat "Never check for updates" is selected. But won't hurt if "Notify me...."is selected, since you won't have Flash and there's nothing to be notified about.

The two big adblockers are AdBlock Plus and µBlock Origin. I have run both and they both seem pretty effective. I think AdBlock receives a few downvotes from some people because it does have a whitelist for "well behaved" ads. I think some complain that the AdBlock author is kind of getting paid off by some advertisers to be included on the whitelist? I think a whitelist makes sense to a degree. Many sites exist due to ads and although I don't like them I guess that's the way things work in this world and they have to get revenues from somewhere. I can tolerate an ad that sits quietly to one side as a static picture and isn't trying to sell me something bad for me or my computer.

I found AdBlock to be a bit more easily configured than uBlock.

AdBlockers will usually have a button to let you disable the blocker on a given site, though often a site will still detect it is installed as a browser add-on and may still refuse to show you the site contents.

I use Firefox, currently with uBlock, and I see many, many, many fewer ads than my wife does using Safari with no ad blockers. (We were looking at her computer last night and she had a non-stop string of video ads playing in an element window. The small window would always move into the viewing area as you scrolled, blocking what we were trying to see on the web site because she also had a huge sidebar opened down one edge of her small notebook display; and no, there wasn't a button to close the window. I get very frustrated by all the garbage I have to see when we are using her computer for something. )

Some sites I just never want to see. I use an add-on called LeechBlock to block those. I don't know which extension is doing this but some sites try to open pop-up windows and I see them open and then close a second later. I know Firefox has a pop-up blocker but I still got pop-ups with it and I think it's another tool killing those other windows.

As I already noted above, but just for emphasis, the Adblock Plus whitelist issue (advertisers paying off ABP to be whitelisted?) is easily taken care of by unchecking "Allow some non-intrusive advertising." I haven't tried uBlock (actually, might have tried it once, and got rid of it almost immediately), but from what I hear, the ABP interface is much easier to use. And quite easy to remove offending or unwanted images wherever they may appear, from right-click ->Adblock Plus Block Image.

Limnos, if its a new-ish version of Safari, ABP is available for it. There's an anti-adblock list I add to people's systems so it will kill most of the "turn off adblock" warnings so most people don't even notice its running ABP.

will walk you through installing the extension on whatever web browser you're using. Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

If it wasn't for all the malware in ads I wouldn't use ad blockers. With modern broadband internet the speed difference is pretty low for normal advertising but a single malicious ad can ruin anyone's day.

WZZZ,Re:"To uninstall Flash, open the Macintosh HD folder on your Desktop or wherever you keep it. You may see three Libraries, your Home Folder Library, another one above that, and a third one under System. You want the second one. Open that Library and go to Internet PlugIns. Inside that, move the following2 items to the Trash: flashplayer.xpt, Flash Player.plugin (you will be asked for your password to do this.) Next, in System Preferences>Flash Player>Updates make surethat "Never check for updates" is selected. But won't hurt if "Notify me...."is selected, since you won't have Flash and there's nothing to be notified about.

I attached 3 file but it has yet to appear in this discussion: there was not three libraries listed on my Macintosh HD, but I did find Library listings on 1) Mac HD.> Library> Updates + Internet plugins and 2)Mac HD> System> Library, but there no listing for Flash Player on any of the 2Library listings that I found, so I was unable to move anything to the trash.b88

The Library in the last screenshot is the right one. Should be inside Internet Plugins. Are you certain that only Disabled Plugins is visible when you open that? Try looking again. Look inside Disabled also. If you have Flash, or didn't run the Adobe uninstaller, those two, flashplayer.xpt, Flash Player.plugin, have to be there when you open that folder.

There were no other options for the the Internet Plug-ins, other than Disabled Plug-Ins. Clicking on the nsIQTplug-in produce the following messageClicking the Quicktime plug-in produced a terminal screen.

My working assumption has been that if B 88 took up the offer to update Flash from that fake Flash update, it was because Flash was there to begin with. If not, as it now appears likely, then nothing to uninstall.

I really have a learning curve to improve on. Before purchasing my iMac last year, I was using a G3 B/W PPC. I have learned through this discussion, that 'Crooks' appear in my different Forms and get you infected in many ways. I guess I will study up on the subject of Adware and I thoroughly apologize for sending everyone of this latest Wild Goose Chase, but I can not say I did not learning anything.

Last question, 'The Adware link is a safe link to install that App, isn't it?

Actually, Malwarebytes will not remove CleanMyMac. I agree with you that it should be removed, as so-called "cleaning" tools are not needed - and are actually counter-productive - on Macs. However, thus far I've never seen CleanMyMac involved in any other kind of bad behavior, and just being a cleaning tool isn't sufficient for detection by Malwarebytes.

That's one reason why I might suggest something beyond MWB, since although I've no direct experience of installing CMM & seeing a system have problems… it definitely seems rather more connected than the usual targets of ASC cries : 'OMG anti virus, you fool !' (which never applies to MWB, of course )

Malwarebytes will remove CMM and other malware but occasionally new versions of malware will come out and the cleaning tool will need to be updated to detect and remove the new version. Its a cat and mouse game. During the window when the tool hasn't been updated, sure, it won't remove it. After? Yes it will. The sky is not falling.

Personally the further I stay away from ASC the happier I feel. They're almost entirely a bunch of dunderheaded idiots trying to pass off platform religion as technical knowledge, which they picked up from other dunderheaded idiots on ASC, only to sit around nattering pointless nonsense at each other and anyone unlucky enough to fall into their view. ASC in a nutshell.

Edit: I think the fundamental problem is that CleanMyMac is a legitimate application whose name a strain of malware is (ab)using. Will MB remove the legitimate app? No. Will it remove the malware version under the same name? Yes. Does that mean MB is worthless? Because they don't detect a non-malware version of the app as malware? Wut?

Last edited by MonkeyBoy on Mon Dec 11, 2017 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:24 amPosts: 9942Location: North of the State of Jefferson

MonkeyBoy wrote:

...They're almost entirely a bunch of dunderheaded idiots trying to pass off platform religion as technical knowledge, which they picked up from other dunderheaded idiots on ASC, only to sit around nattering pointless nonsense at each other and anyone unlucky enough to fall into their view...

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